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Top US lawyer warns of deaths at Guantánamo

Guardian/ObserverMark Townsend and Paul HarrisFebruary 8, 2009

Lieutenant-Colonel Yvonne Bradley, an American military lawyer, will
step through the grand entrance of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
in London tomorrow and demand the release of her client - a British
resident who claims he was repeatedly tortured at the behest of US
intelligence officials - from Guantánamo Bay. Bradley will also request
the disclosure of 42 secret documents that allegedly chronicle not only
how Binyam Mohamed was tortured, but may also corroborate claims that
Britain was complicit in his treatment.

But first, Bradley, a US
military attorney for 20 years, will reveal that Mohamed, 31, is dying
in his Guantánamo cell and that conditions inside the Cuban prison camp
have deteriorated badly since Barack Obama took office. Fifty of its
260 detainees are on hunger strike and, say witnesses, are being
strapped to chairs and force-fed, with those who resist being beaten.
At least 20 are described as being so unhealthy they are on a "critical
list", according to Bradley.

Mohamed, who is suffering dramatic
weight loss after a month-long hunger strike, has told Bradley, 45,
that he is "very scared" of being attacked by guards, after witnessing
a savage beating for a detainee who refused to be strapped down and
have a feeding tube forced into his mouth. It is the first account
Bradley has personally received of a detainee being physically
assaulted in Guantánamo.

Bradley recently met Mohamed in Camp
Delta's sparse visiting room and was shaken by his account of the state
of affairs inside the notorious prison.

She said: "At least 50
people are on hunger strike, with 20 on the critical list, according to
Binyam. The JTF [the Joint Task Force running Guantánamo] are not
commenting because they do not want the public to know what is going on.

"Binyam
has witnessed people being forcibly extracted from their cell. Swat
teams in police gear come in and take the person out; if they resist,
they are force-fed and then beaten. Binyam has seen this and has not
witnessed this before. Guantánamo Bay is in the grip of a mass hunger
strike and the numbers are growing; things are worsening.

"It is
so bad that there are not enough chairs to strap them down and
force-feed them for a two- or three-hour period to digest food through
a feeding tube. Because there are not enough chairs the guards are
having to force-feed them in shifts. After Binyam saw a nearby inmate
being beaten it scared him and he decided he was not going to resist.
He thought, 'I don't want to be beat, injured or killed.' Given his
health situation, one good blow could be fatal," said Bradley.

"Binyam
is continuing to lose weight and he is going to get worse. He has been
told he is about to be released, but psychologically and physically he
is declining."

It is conceivable that Mohamed himself may shortly
return to London, heralding yet another political embarrassment for
Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who already faces a tumultuous week
over claims that he was keen to suppress evidence of torture.

On
Tuesday, the unprecedented dispute between Miliband and the judiciary
is set to reignite when High Court judges Lord Justice Thomas and Mr
Justice Lloyd Jones decide whether to reopen the case which Mohamed
believes substantiates his torture claims.

Meanwhile, in San
Francisco, a little-publicised court case into the treatment of Mohamed
will open. American civil liberties lawyers are hoping to shine a light
on the defence firm that allegedly carried out the practice of
"rendition" on behalf of the CIA. Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing
subsidiary, helped to arrange rendition flights for several terror
suspects, including Mohamed, to nations where they claim they were
tortured.

The case was originally dismissed after the Bush
administration asserted "state secrets privilege", indicating that it
would endanger national security - the same argument used by Miliband.
However, Obama has repeatedly stressed his willingness to be less
secretive than his predecessor and a similar decision would lead to
claims that the current administration is bent on suppressing evidence
of torture.

Closer to home, the Observer has found evidence
suggesting a broader unwillingness by Britain to confront the US over
its war on terror programme. The Attorney General says it is "actively
considering" possible criminal wrongdoings against MI5 and the CIA, but
sources claim the government's senior lawyer has failed, after almost
four months of looking into the issue, to request material from the US
that may substantiate allegations of MI5 complicity in Mohamed's
torture.

Suspicion is also growing that some sections of the US
intelligence community would prefer Binyam did die inside Guantánamo.
Silenced forever, only the sparse language of his diary would be left
to recount his torture claims and interviewees with an MI5 officer,
known only as Witness B. Such a scenario would also deny Mohamed the
chance to personally sue the US, and possibly British authorities, over
his treatment.

But if Mohamed survives to come back to London,
his experiences of the past six years promise a harrowing journey
through the dark underbelly of the war on terror. For Miliband, the
questions concerning Britain's role may have only just begun.